The relationship between natural food cooperatives and the local farmers that supply them tends to be personal.

It's not unusual for a co-op and its farmers to meet annually to discuss their mutual needs for the coming growing season.

Farmers might visit the member-owned stores for educational events to promote, say, their heirloom tomatoes or their hormone-free cheeses.

And, especially in rural areas of the state, they might be both vendor and member.

So when hundreds of organic farmers in southwest Wisconsin and neighboring Minnesota lost much or all of their crops in flooding along the Kickapoo River and its tributaries this month, co-ops in the region didn't just turn to other suppliers to stock their shelves.

They asked how they could help their existing partners recover.

At least five Wisconsin cooperatives, including Outpost Natural Foods in Milwaukee and the Willy Street Co-op in Madison, have joined with their counterparts in Minnesota to raise money for those farmers and a Crawford County natural foods co-op that is now struggling after the floods.

It's part of the philosophy of cooperation and community sustainability embraced by thousands of co-ops around the world.

"Co-ops exist on a different set of principles than a conventional store might," said Outpost communications director Margaret Bert. "Two of those are that co-ops have a concern for their communities and that they pursue a just economy for everybody.

"The idea is to connect with the farmer, help that farmer persevere and survive in times of hardship," she said. "This is the relationship communities used to have with their local producers."

Through September, shoppers at the co-ops - 15 as of Tuesday, though new ones are joining daily, organizers said - are being invited to donate money to the Sow the Seeds Fund at the Minneapolis-based Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. The money will be used to benefit the affected farmers.

The Willy Street Co-op will split its proceeds between Sow the Seeds and the Kickapoo Exchange Natural Foods Co-op in Gays Mills, which lost about $2,600 in cold and frozen foods when its electricity went out and expects more losses as its members struggle to get back into their flooded homes.

Other Wisconsin co-ops participating so far are in Stevens Point, Menomonie and Viroqua, in Vernon County, which like Crawford was declared a federal disaster area as a result of the flooding.

Because the number of participants is growing so quickly, a true tally was tough to come by Tuesday. But early estimates from just Sow the Seeds and three of the larger co-ops totaled $4,200. And an Austin, Texas, co-op is pledging matching funds.

"Our Bay View store alone raised $300 on Saturday," the first day collection jars were posted at the cash registers, said Outpost general manager Pam Mehnert.

In addition to dropping cash in the jars, shoppers can round up their grocery bills; donate online at www.sowtheseedsfund.org; and buy a specially blended Peace coffee, $2 of which will go to Sow the Seeds, said Mark Muller of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.

The fund-raising campaign grew out of a conversation between Muller and folks at the Wedge Community Co-op in Minneapolis, where he is a board member. Around the same time, Outpost's Mehnert had gotten in touch with Wedge asking how her members could help farmers in the region.

"That was last Thursday. This all came together in a day," Mehnert said.

Among the growers that could benefit is Harmony Valley Farm in Viroqua, which lost about half of its 100 acres of organic produce when the Bad Axe River spilled over its banks.

"Every dollar counts," said Andrea Yoder of Harmony Valley. "It will take a collaborative effort on everyone's part for people to get out from under this."

Erin Martin, who manages the Kickapoo Co-op in Gays Mills, where the floodwaters stopped just inches from the door, called the campaign a "tremendous and wonderful thing."

Martin said she was heartened by it, but not surprised.

"It's part of the co-op principles," she said.

"We certainly have a profit motive, or we wouldn't stay in business. But we are answerable for how we do that," she said. "And you can't put profit above the well-being of the community."